5 Reasons to Consider Supplements

We all know the drill—if you eat your fruits and vegetables, expose yourself to adequate sunlight, get plenty of sleep, and stay well hydrated, your body shouldn't really need a supplemental source of vitamins and minerals, right? Not always.

The bottom line is this: if you are a serious athlete looking to enhance your physical performance in an IRONMAN or other endurance event, you should be serious about the energy sources you’re putting into your body. In most cases—unless you’re living on top of some pristine, unadulterated mountain with organic soil and a huge garden—then you most likely need to add high-nutrient supplements to your healthy diet.

Here are five reasons you may need supplements, no matter how "healthy" your diet:

1) Exercise increases nutrient needs. We all know that endurance athletes use a vast amount of extra oxygen and energy compared to the average person. What you may not realize is their nutrient consumption can reflect that as well. Even the top, fittest IRONMAN athletes I work with—and I’m telling you, these guys are fit—have deficiencies in nearly every mineral, amino acid and vitamin that their bodies needed for peak performance. These deficiencies can be overcome by adding the right supplement to your nutrition plan.

2) Nutrient depletion in the soil. Modern farming techniques use fertilizers that actually deplete the soil of essential nutrients. Agricultural practices rely on elements in the soil for absorption of proper amounts of minerals, and when this process is interrupted, the plant does not contain essential minerals and cannot form essential vitamins. If the plant doesn't have it then you're not going to get it from eating the plant.

3)Need for ATP. Adenosine-5'-triphosphate (ATP) is a critical compound that your cell use for muscle contractions and cell growth, repair and recovery. For endurance athletes, ATP is not optional—you must have it, and you must have it in high amounts to make the energy your body needs to complete the workout. Natural supplements like X2Performance—which has ATP-producing compounds such as di-sodium ATP and d-Ribose—can be taken 30-40 minutes before your workout to support natural ATP production, naturally increase energy, enhance endurance and improve recovery.

4) Age matters. As you age, your ability to absorb nutrients from food decreases. While growing children should absolutely be taking a multivitamin to support healthy tissue and bone formation, supplementation becomes equally important for older people. Sure, you could just eat more food, but this introduces a problem with caloric balance. Beware that many medications also interfere with proper nutrient absorption.

5) Commercial harvesting, shipping processes, long term food storage, processing, and addition of preservatives degrade the nutrient content of food. Unless you're eating a very fresh plant, what you're eating is a far different species at consumption than it was when harvested. In addition, compounds added to the food during many of these processes—such as MSG, saccharine, nutrasweet, splenda, colorings and flavors—will increase your body's need for nutrients to deal with these damaging synthetic derivatives.

X2PERFORMANCE products undergo independent laboratory testing to comply with NSF Certified for Sport. They also received the INFORMED-SPORT certification, which is awarded through independent testing for banned substances in accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code (WADA).

The World Triathlon Corporation encourages athletes and consumers of dietary supplements to take a careful and proactive approach in choosing whether or not to take supplements and if so, which supplements to take. They must take a number of steps to become fully informed, educated, and aware, as they are accountable and responsible for their choices.

All Athletes competing in WTC events worldwide are reminded that they are fully responsible for knowing what substances are banned in accordance with the Prohibited List and for monitoring his/her own compliance with the WTC Anti-Doping Rules. Under the strict liability principle, an athlete is responsible, and an anti-doping rule violation occurs, whenever a prohibited substance is found in an athlete’s sample. The violation occurs whether or not the athlete intentionally or unintentionally used a prohibited substance or was negligent or otherwise at fault. (WADA Code comment to article 2.1.1).